Wreck of the Steamship Pacific: How Greed and Gold Sent Hundreds to a Watery Grave

The deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast—and one of the most cynical cover-ups in maritime history

On the night of November 4, 1875, off the coast of Cape Flattery, Washington, the sidewheel steamer Pacific was struck a glancing blow by a larger and heavier sailing ship, the Orpheus. What followed was the worst disaster in “the Graveyard of the Pacific,” a region notorious then and now for maritime disasters. Well over three hundred people died when the Pacific sank, including many children who were allowed to board at no charge; they would survive for mere minutes in the icy, storm-tossed waters after the ship went down. In the end, there were only two survivors among the crew and passengers.

Like most such tragedies, the sinking of the Pacific was entirely preventable. The sinking—and the deaths—were the result of an all-too-common mixture of human greed and political chicanery. The steamship, though once a stout and resolute explorer of the seas, was by the time of the wreck an old and battered warhorse; shabby and listing, she had no business carrying passengers on the open ocean. Yet she had been pressed into service and pronounced fit for sailing because of the greed of gold miners, speculators, and crooked officials.

The Pacific allegedly has been located on the ocean floor, still holding a fortune in gold and cash—which has drawn attention from journalists, historians, and treasure hunters alike and renewed interest in a wreck long overshadowed by other maritime disasters. Author Rod Scher goes beneath the treasure story to the one that matters: the events of the fateful final voyage and the greed and political cover-up that sent the Pacific to the bottom of the sea.